Joan Makes History – Kate Grenville

Feminist rewritings of history are usually the kind of thing that brings me out in hives, but I gave this a go on the strength of the excellent The Secret River. Joan proves to be an exuberant, senual and engaging narrator, both when she lives the life of a “normal” wife and mother, and when she materialises in various roles at important moments in Australian history.

It was only when she adopts the role of a man for a while that I realised I was reading a take on Woolf’s Orlando.

Good stuff.